Ombudsman criticises London borough after resident “unfairly threatened” with court action for non-payment of council tax

A catalogue of clerical confusion and billing errors led to a Barnet resident being unfairly threatened with court action for not paying her council tax, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.

The woman told the London Borough of Barnet her daughter had moved out of the home they shared, and requested the council apply the single person’s discount to her bill. Instead, the council closed her original account and created a new one for her.

Over the next 10 months the council sent her 20 bills, the Ombudsman said. Some of the bills showed her account was in credit, others showed a deficit.

According to the Ombudsman, the council never offered the woman an explanation for the differing amounts or told her that the credits she had accumulated could not be used to offset the bill.

The woman asked the council to communicate with her by post because she struggled to access her emails. It ignored her request and for years it continued to pursue its inflexible policy of emailing everyone regardless of their circumstances. This caused the woman further confusion about where she stood with her bills.

When the correct bill was finally issued, the woman was only given a few weeks to pay. Barnet obtained a liability order for the debt through the courts and referred this to bailiffs, who traced the account to the wrong address.

The woman complained to the Ombudsman after she was not satisfied with the way the council handled her complaint. The Ombudsman’s investigation found fault with the way the council handled the woman’s council tax account, and for errors it found in the council’s complaint handling.

Paul Najsarek, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “In this case, instead of going through the complicated process of closing the woman’s account and creating a new one when her circumstances changed, the council should have simply applied the discount to her original account and put her bill on hold for a month.

“This confusion led to the woman spending 10 months unsure of where she stood, and ultimately led to her being taken to court and her debt referred to bailiffs.

“I am pleased the council has already removed the costs of court action from the woman’s account and hope the steps it has now agreed to take will ensure other people in the borough are not affected in the same way.”

Barnet has agreed to:

• waive the bailiff fees;
• apologise to the woman;
• pay her £334 which can be used to clear the remaining council tax balance;
• review the content of its council tax bills “to include a clear explanation of when credits of council tax support are not refundable and to remind staff to apply a ‘bill inhibit’ for a month”;
• review its communications policy to ensure people who do not want to correspond electronically can access services and communication. It will also provide staff training on complaint handling.

A Barnet Council spokesperson said: “Upon receiving the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s findings, we have taken the necessary steps to action the remedies as quickly and efficiently as possible. We apologise for the issues relating to this resident’s 2019-2020 council tax bill.

“We are always striving to provide the best possible services for our residents and we are disappointed on this occasion we have fallen short. Therefore we are also using this as a learning opportunity to prevent anything like this from happening again.”

Harry Rodd